#Reveal manager for pc update#
#Reveal manager for pc software#
#Reveal manager for pc tv#
#Reveal manager for pc windows#

Of course, we are still very early in the lifetime of this platform - at the time of this writing, just over a year since it's been commercially available to consumers. Back in December 2006, Media Center Program Manager Charlie Owen put that expectation into concrete terms when he wrote:

#Reveal manager for pc update#

OEMs want to know that the hardware they design will work for a long, profitable life cycle and donвЂ™t want to find out that a seemingly innocuous update broke their most popular configuration and cost them a small fortune in support calls. Enthusiasts want a new release every month and will tolerate endless tweaks and troubleshooting the platform builder is thinking over a much longer term.

#Reveal manager for pc software#

When youвЂ™re building a software platform that reaches millions of people worldwide, you have a powerful incentive to move slowly and make changes with great care. Enthusiasts write the reviews, but OEMs write the big checks. Microsoft wants to create a platform for as many customers as possible, with their primary goals being predictability, stability, and simplicity.Media Center enthusiasts want frequent releases and esoteric features and are willing to sacrifice some stability and usability to be on the bleeding edge.

#Reveal manager for pc tv#

The controversy over the TV Pack release highlights the age-old conflict between the needs of a mass market and those of an enthusiast community. What we really have here, I think, is a failure to communicate. What we have here, according to the most vocal critics in the Media Center community, is a failure. In this post, I want to focus on the disconnect between the Media Center development team and its community. In the gallery that accompanies this post, I have an in-depth look at the TV Pack in operation.

#Reveal manager for pc windows#

IвЂ™ve been digging into that story for the past month or so, including some hands-on tests of the TV Pack running in Windows Vista. The volume kicked up to 11 after Microsoft announced the release to manufacturing of its Windows Media Center TV Pack (formerly code-named вЂњFijiвЂќ) and acknowledged that it would be officially available only on new systems sold through OEMs. These days, the community is spending much of its energy complaining, loudly, that Microsoft is ignoring its wishes and moving too slowly with Media Center development.

With all those passionate users, youвЂ™d think that a trip to The Green Button and other community sites would be a Media Center lovefest. (The Green Button was recently acquired by Microsoft, but its management and independent character have remained unchanged.) Down Under, the Australian Media Center Community boasts more than 11,000 members, and other large Media Center communities exist in Europe and Asia. That enthusiasm has inspired some passionate communities, the largest of which is The Green Button, a community site with more than 112,000 registered members. Together, that means Media Center is installed on as many as 200 million PCs worldwide.Д«ut the Media Center feature set runs deep, offering high-end capabilities that appeal strongly to digital media enthusiasts. Its predecessor, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, was the default installation for most consumer PCs for more than two years as well. The Media Center application is built into the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Vista, which means itвЂ™s on at least three out of every four PCs sold at retail today. Of all the features included with Windows Vista, Media Center is unique.